The Barber

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Back in some small towns in the old west, the barber was the only person who had experience handling a very sharp knife (and the association between barbers and surgeonsgoes back centuries.) The town might not be big enough to have a physician, so in addition to cutting your hair and shaving you, he might also do some "minor" surgeries, or any major ones where you either didn't have enough time to get to a real doctor, or would probably die from the rigors of the trip. Sometimes was also the mortician since he had to shave the corpses, too. This type of Barber might show up in a "realist fantasy" that has done the research.

In fictional Westerns however Barbers are used primarily as sources of gossip, and a local gathering place outside of the Saloon. Expect the villain to show up and demand a shave before he confronts The Hero, thus allowing the Barber to send a warning to The Sheriff. Occasionally can be reversed.

By ancient tradition, the Barber tends to be extremely talkative, often taking advantage of having a captive audience who can't reply because they've either got a hot towel on their face or a cutthroat razor at their throat.

Billy Bob Thornton's character in the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There is a subversion of the stereotypically friendly, chatty barber: he's a simple, dull fellow who leads a life of quiet desperation that abruptly gets loud.

Documentary A Time for Burning has Ernie Chambers, a barber and black radical and civil rights activist who delivers some unvarnished home truths to reformist white minister Rev. Youngdahl ("Your laws are a farce") while cutting hair the whole time.

Literature

"The Tale Of The Barber" in the Arabian Nights, in which a barber tells several stories about his family and chatters endlessly while swearing up and down that he is a man of few but wise words, despite his penchant for chatter and meddling only causing trouble wherever he goes. The end result (depending on the translation) is hilarious.

Starting with the Candy Store series, some later Gospel Bill videos (a Christian Western series) introduce a barber called "Lefty". True to form, he doubles as an undertaker.

Radio

The chatterbox style of barber appears in an episode of The Six ShooterRadio Drama delivering an info dump on the goings-on in the town as the hero Britt Ponsett (James Stewart) struggles to get a word in edgeways.

Theatre

Man of La Mancha, which actually features a journeyman barber who still loves the sound of his own voice.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a zig-zagged case. Decades prior to the story, Benjamin Barker was a friendly, well-liked town barber, easily fitting the trope. He returns from exile a brooding, sullen man, though depending on the version he remains friendly and talented enough to ensure a stream of satisfied customers and victims. The musical version of the Demon Barber plays up his Odd Friendship with his partner in crime and landlord Mrs. Lovett, gleefully plotting their crime spree.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) largely does away with the trope, in favor of playing up this Sweeney as a melancholy, withdrawn force of vengence to match the tone of the film. Here, the Demon Barber remains introverted and meticulous, rarely talking with other characters, while they have one-sided conversations near him, instead preferring to talk to his razors. He only really breaks this reverie before brutally murdering somebody plot-relevant.

In the 2006 BBC version, one of his customers remarks—as a compliment—that Sweeney Todd's barbershop is "the quietest in London", appreciating that he's not "chittering on like the rest of 'em".

Western Animation

Courage the Cowardly Dog has Cousin Fred, a parody of Sweeney Todd that while equally creepy and psychotic merely has an obsession with cutting hair (in excess) rather than throats.

Barber Smurf in The Smurfs, though he has a rather limited clientele as few Smurfs in the village have hair.

Web Original

Played with in the Transformation Story Saga aptly titled The Barber; the main character not only takes care of his customers' hair, but also of their physical wellbeing... by making them become somebody else (always a very attractive, gay man).

Community

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